Pueblo resident creates a board game to commemorate the city’s past

Steel has always been an important part of Pueblo’s history, but a game designer said, outside of the Steel City, the Industrial Revolution time period in the city seems to be forgotten.

Wade Broadhead is a former Pueblo city planner. He is addicted to board games and loves Pueblo’s history.

He used that combination to team up with Knight Works Games to create a board game called “Forged In Steel.” It is a card driven strategy board game that takes place during the Industrial Revolution when the steel mill was bringing people from all over the world to Pueblo.

“History can occur like it actually did, but most of the time it takes a different trajectory, so you’re charting that part of history in Pueblo and things can happen at the same time or later,” Broadhead said.

He created the game to remind people why Pueblo is called the Steel City.

“That history is kind of being lost as we move jobs, and other places where pieces or whole sections of our history are being lost,” Broadhead said.

In order to make the game authentic, he needed help from the Steelworks Center of the West, a place that conserves Pueblo’s history.

“I think a game like this (will) appeal to a very wide age group. We can bring history to kids, young kids and teenagers in a way that they wouldn’t get here at the museum, online or school,” Tim Hawkins, executive director of the Steelworks Center of the West, said.

Broadhead hopes to have the board game available by November.